LONG BEACH – Long Beach State women’s soccer coach Mauricio Ingrassia was all smiles on Monday afternoon as he and his team gathered in front of the wall of TVs at the Beach Club to watch the NCAA Tournament field unfold.

After it was announced the 49ers would face Santa Clara in a first-round game as part of the Stanford Regional, Ingrassia was still smiling.

Maybe he was just giddy about winning the school’s first Big West Conference Tournament championship the day before and qualifying for the NCAAs for the second time in three years, because Long Beach State’s placement in the 64-team field deserved something more like a frown than a smile.

But the news wasn’t about to ruin the moment for the 49ers, who cheered when seeing their school’s name appear on the TV screens.

“In a knockout tournament, you have to beat whoever comes up,” Ingrassia said. “Any team that makes the tournament is going to be a tough opponent. We are happy to be in and now we are focusing on our first opponent, Santa Clara. It’s a good matchup.”

The 49ers (14-5-2) will face the Broncos (12-8-2) at 4:30p.m. Friday at Stanford. The winner of that matchup will face top-ranked Stanford (18-0-2) or Sacramento State (9-9-1) on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Santa Clara, which finished second to Portland in the West Coast Conference this season, is certainly the favorite, at least based on reputation. The Broncos, No. 14 in the latest NSCAA rankings, are a perennial NCAA Tournament team and won the national championship in 2001. They play in front of large crowds at the school and will be the definite home team with Stanford being just a stone’s throw away.

Long Beach State, picked to place sixth in the BWC preseason poll, finished second in the BWC and topped No. 11 UC Irvine in the BWC Tournament title game to earn the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAAs. The 49ers’ 14 wins matches a school record.

Despite the odds seemingly stacked on the other side of the ledger, the 49ers, who are 1-3 all-time against Santa Clara, feel they are up to the challenge.

“We feel our hard work has paid off,” senior midfielder and captain Lindsay Bullock . “Santa Clara’s history and program are well known … but I definitely still think we are peaking. If we come out and put our best foot forward, we are a hard team to beat.”

What might have stung even more than where the 49ers were placed was seeing rival UCI receive a very favorable draw, not to mention hosting the first two rounds. In that four-team grouping, LBSU has wins over three teams – UCI, Arizona State and Wake Forest. The 49ers didn’t play San Diego, the other team in the region, this season.

The 49ers feel they could have been a Sweet 16 team with that kind of draw. Instead, if they can defeat Santa Clara, they would more than likely get national championship hopeful Stanford next in a David vs. Goliath matchup.

“I don’t know if jealousy is the right word,” Bullock said. “I guess I was taken aback.”

Ingrassia again took the high road, not wanting to spoil the moment.

“They had a great year and their RPI was high,” he said. “I am happy for them and rooting for the Big West.”

The last time – the only time until this season – Long Beach State made the NCAA Tournament was in 2008, when it received an at-large bid after falling in the BWC Tournament final on PKs. That year, the 49ers were one-and-done after suffering a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to San Diego.

Watching the selection show this time was almost anti-climatic as the 49ers knew they were already in. But there was a hearty cheer when LB State appeared.

“We felt we were 80-90 percent that we were in, but there was still some doubt,” said Bullock of the team’s 2008 selection. “There were still some jitters and excitement because you are going to the NCAA Tournament, the big dance. We were one of the first teams to come up.

We had just looked up and it was like, `Hey, that’s us,’ and we all started screaming.”

No matter what happens this weekend, qualifying for the NCAAs two times in three years speaks volumes about the 49ers program.

“It validates our program,” Ingrassia said said . “In 2008, we had that one good class and people felt we’d fall off. But here we are back in the NCAA Tournament again. I’m excited.”

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